


Crows

by orphan_account



Series: Better the devil you know [2]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Dark, Haphephobia, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, M/M, Mental Instability, Unrequited Love, Yoglabs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-22 12:26:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3728893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crows are friends with death. Countless myths and legends place the crow on battlefields; picking at eyeballs, peeling flesh from the ribcages of fallen warriors.</p><p>Sequel: Fuses Burn</p><p>(Note to the Yogscast: Please don't read any of my fics on stream.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crows

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy this little side project to Abeyance. It's totally unrelated to that story, despite using the same characters, but I figured I may as well post it.  
>  ~~I swear I write things other than this ship~~
> 
> ((this Lalnable is not the Lalnable from abeyance at all so be aware yo))

Every morning at eleven o'clock on the hour, Xephos walked past Lalnable's cage. Never a moment later or sooner, never with anything but a grim, determined expression on his face.  
  
Always alone, nowadays. He used to take his dwarf friend sometimes, but that had long since ended. Perhaps he had gotten bored with him and killed him, or left him mind wiped in the wilderness. It wouldn't be the first time; he had such a boring taste in company, and an ever shortening thread of patience.  
  
Perhaps Xephos just wanted someone as fixed as he now was. Xephos' routine was so rigid it was almost as if he was cornered in his own cage, and Lalnable had all the freedom in the world.  
  
Which he did. Lalnable was given paper and pens and food, which was more than enough. They'd give him new clothes and sweet food if he sent plans for war machines up a pneumatic tube, which was motivation he didn't need or truly want. He even had a tunnel out half dug, hidden behind his short white bookshelf.  
  
The gap between his cell and the outer glass was so much smaller now he'd been behaving, which only made his progress easier; and he had every freedom he needed for what he wanted to do.  
  
At twelve thirty exactly Xephos would walk back the other way, his dark circles kept at bay by caffeine deeper and darker, and no one so much as looked twice. Lalnable wondered if the employees of Yoglabs even knew their leader was on the edge of cracking, and that all it would take would be a tap.  
  
"Hey Xephos."  
  
Xephos jumped a little, shoulders tensing hard. He turned his head slowly to look Lalnable dead in the eye, gaze level and patient.  
  
Lalnable smiled, giving a small wave. "You look awful."  
  
Xephos gritted his teeth at that, eyes sharp and dark, and he turned away to fade from Lalnable's view.  
  
Lalnable wondered if Xephos knew his eyes had the turned blue-grey of the steel he surrounded himself with, or if he still saw the blue of the sky he now hated so much.  
  
Any light there had once been was gone, and it was hard to tell if the spaceman would even care.  
  


* * *

  
  
Five minutes past eleven. Xephos was late.  
  
When he finally came into Lalnable's view he didn't have his usual determined stride, the exhausted sway of his steps a clear indication that he had run out of caffeine pills and hadn't slept a wink. He was so very adept at hiding it from his employees, but they were so terrified of him now that it was a wonder they ever looked at him long enough to tell.  
  
Did he ever sleep by his own will? How long had it been? Xephos' eyes were underlined by purple and grey that aged him years, so it could only be weeks since he slept more than an hour or two. Months, even. It was a wonder he could even stand up at all.  
  
Lalnable watched him slip through the door at the other side, and settled back on his chair to wait.  
  
When Xephos returned again (twelve thirty on the second, he was back to his pattern) he'd stuffed his hands hard in his pockets, but the shake of caffeine jitters still stuck out like a sore thumb. He definitely hadn't had his pills.  
  
"How long has it been?"  
  
Xephos paused, staring at Lalnable with irritation. "Since what?"  
  
"Since you slept. Actually used a pillow under your head. I've seen you swallowing those caffeine pills when you think no one's looking."  
  
"I haven't used them for ages," Xephos scoffed, and he made to walk away again. That wouldn't do.  
  
"Li-ar," Lalnable said, singsong, and Xephos stopped dead, "Yesterday you took four at once. The day before that you took three. You take them in the left doorway when you think no one will notice, because there's a blind spot in the camera."  
  
Xephos turned back, dark brow furrowed, "Why do you care?"  
  
"You didn't take any this morning. I know you need them."  
  
"I don't need -" Xephos sounded almost fearful, but he cut himself off and gave a frustrated growl, "I don't need anything, Lalnable, and I definitely don't need your bloody concern."  
  
"Check the medicine cabinet, in the staff room outside the testificate break room," Lalnable sighed and drummed his fingers on his knees, "there's bottles of them. But you don't need them, so it doesn't matter."  
  
The shake of deprivation in Xephos' hands became noticeable to even a cursory glance, and Lalnable waved cheerily as he stormed off, though the flash of quiet gratitude in his eyes had been nigh palpable.   
  


* * *

  
  
  
On the dot of eleven am, Xephos came past again, the shake in his hands gone down to barely a twitch. His eyes were rimmed with red, the puffiness not going unnoticed for a second.  
  
"You look better," Lalnable said it almost without sarcasm, though it was a struggle.  
  
Xephos ignored him entirely, his steel eyes not so much as glancing towards the glass cage as he slipped silently through the door of the cloning labs.  
  
He'd taken the pills, of course. It was obvious he would, and there was precious little satisfaction to it.  
  
It was well past one o'clock when Xephos came back, a veritable cloud of frustration hanging over his head. Whether it was because of some small issue or because his schedule had been broken it was impossible to tell, because both held equal weight.  
  
"What's up, Xeph?"  
  
Xephos' brow furrowed with irritation and he stopped, turning to face Lalnable with a decidedly fed up expression and an impatient tap of his foot.  
  
"I am not letting you out of there, Lalnable," Xephos snapped, his arms folded tightly, "so stop whatever this is."  
  
Lalnable rolled his eyes. "I can get out whenever I want, Xephos, and I thought you'd figured that out anyway."  
  
It was clear that Xephos wanted to leave the conversation, the anxiety was clear in the shift of his feet, but someone actually paying attention to him was glue in his feathers. He acted so very strong and aloof but it was only an act, and a poor one at that.  
  
He was so desperately lonely.  
  
"Then why don't you just leave?" The question was reasonable, but Xephos made it sound like it was meant to be an attack, "I know you don't like it in there, that was the whole point."  
  
"Don't need to leave right now," Lalnable said, shrugging, "and besides, no one watches the camera for my cell anymore. If I leave and get caught, they will. Hard call."  
  
Xephos blanched slightly the moment he mentioned not being watched (which was something he assumed, as armed guards never showed up anymore no matter what he did), though his expression quickly faded from faint panic to something darker. How predictable he was.  
  
"Lighten up, Xeph," Lalnable said, taking a few steps further towards Xephos so his voice could be heard clearly through the glass barrier, "You'll get frown lines."  
  
"Don't call me that."  
  
"Why not? It's just a nickname."  
  
"Just... don't," Xephos' anger had faded into tiredness and faint distaste; which was his usual baseline, to be fair, but this was more than usual.  
  
Lalnable had struck a raw nerve.   
  
He didn't say a word after that, waiting for the moment Xephos would leave in a self-induced huff.  
  
"Why did you-"  
  
Lalnable started, because he hadn't expected Xephos to initiate conversation this early. It was an unexpected variable, but a welcome one.  
  
"Why did I what?"  
  
Xephos hesitated, but shook his head lightly.  
  
"Never mind, Lalnable."  
  
He'd caught himself. The fingernails digging into his palms were enough proof of that.  
  
Xephos shoved his white-knuckled hands in the pockets of his pretty crimson coat, and was gone.  
  


* * *

  
  
  
Xephos ignored him entirely the next day, and for days after that. Didn't so much as blink, though Lalnable still talked to him until he vanished again, in some tiny hope. If Lalnable had less patience, he would have thrown in the towel.  
  
But he had all the time in the world.  
  
So he simply said nothing, after five more days passed. Xephos had glanced back at him the day he stopped, as if he'd expected him to say something. To wave.  
  
He didn't. He didn't even look at Xephos, for those days. Just sat at his table and doodled on a sheet of paper, or sat on his bed and counted the tiles of his roof. It wasn't exciting, but day by day Xephos lingered more and more at that door.   
  
"This isn't going to work."  
  
Lalnable lazily looked up from his paper to Xephos, who stood huffily just a metre or so away from the glass. Two weeks. He'd expected less.  
  
"What isn't?" Lalnable feigned ignorance, swinging one leg idly under the table he sat at.   
  
"You know exactly what you're doing."  
  
"You're the one who ignored me, so I stopped talking to you." Lalnable tapped his blunt pencil on the table with mock irritation, "Did you want me to keep going?"  
  
"You-" Xephos cut himself off with a frustrated noise, "Of course not! You are so insufferable-"  
  
"You're the one who's talking to me, Xephos. It's almost like you're -"  
  
"Shut up!" Xephos snapped, his pitch heightening, "I hate you. I hate you so much, Lalnable Hector!"  
  
Lalnable blinked slowly, a picture of innocence, "Are you alright, Xephos? I think the testificates in the next building might have missed that, if you'd like to yell louder -"  
  
"I'm fine, and I know you don't care, so don't even pretend." Crossed arms, again. Tense shoulders. His body language was so easy.  
  
"Do you? You're the only one who talks to me."  
  
Xephos looked unimpressed at the attempt at emotional connection, though that was expected. His heart wasn't entirely blackened, but it was on the edge of it.  
  
"And what, you're getting stir crazy in there?"  
  
"Well, I'm not exactly getting out every weekend, am I?"  
  
"You deserve to be in there, for all the damage you've done."  
  
How boring. That excuse had shrivelled up and died months and years ago, and they both knew that.  
  
"And how many people have you killed since we last spoke?"  
  
Xephos froze up, as Lalnable knew he would. The spaceman hated any mention of what he'd done, because clearly some small glimmer of guilt still existed in his shrivelled conscience. Lalnable decided to press further.  
  
"One? Two? Ten? Another Testificate M.D., surely. I've heard the whispers of the cleaners as they go past. Every week, another murder."  
  
"How dare-"  
  
"Oh, no, I don't blame you." Lalnable tilted his head, settling his chin into one hand. "They're all so boring. This isn't an attack on you, no matter how much you'd like it to be."  
  
"Then what is it?"  
  
And there it was. Lalnable gave an inward shiver.  
  
"You fascinate me, Xephos."  
  
Xephos' nose wrinkled. "A fly would fascinate you if it buzzed a little differently, Lalnable, so that doesn't mean shit."  
"No, Xephos. Only you."  
  
Xephos looked dumbstruck. His expression went circles around agape and just went back to blank, because his face became quickly as featureless and pale as stone.  
  
"It's only ever been you."  
  
Xephos swallowed sharply, his pupils dilating, and he left without a word.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Xephos clearly tried to ignore Lalnable. He clearly tried.  
But, as Lalnable already knew, it couldn't work forever. He didn't look for a week, before the fleeting looks started. Every time Xephos would so much as glance his way, Lalnable would meet the gaze steadily and hold it until the spaceman slowed down his movement. If only for one weak second, Xephos would falter, before he'd snap his gaze away and grit his teeth.  
  
There were moments where it looked as if Xephos would speak to him, but he faltered on every shameful syllable and in the end he'd be pale and ever so slightly trembling. Lalnable would ask him if he was alright, voice as sweet as honey, and curses would pour out of Xephos' mouth until he stormed away.  
  
It was clear Xephos knew where the slippery slope was going, but he did nothing to stop himself. He could've had Lalnable moved, or shot, or replaced the glass of his cage with a one-way mirror. He could've just gagged him.  
  
He didn't. He didn't because he couldn't. Xephos was vicious and murderous, but he wasn't the stone wall all his employees believed him to be. He was cardboard painted like stone, a fortress no one dared penetrate even though it was so easy.  
  
He was already so worn down. He'd lost so much.  
  
This dance continued for weeks, and Xephos would be later and later for his routine period at the cloning labs, and some days he didn't come at all. After those days he'd come back with caffeine jitters and dead eyes that barely saw Lalnable, and those were the worst. He got nothing done.  
  
"Lalnable, what do you want?"  
  
It was the first coherent sentence he'd gotten in weeks.   
  
"You."  
  
"I -" Xephos choked on his words, squeezing his eyes shut to blink away sleep that wouldn't ever leave him, "I won't go in there, you know that."  
  
"I won't hurt you, I promise. You're not replaceable."  
  
"That doesn't mean anything, Lalnable. I just respawn, and I won't do something as stupid as -"  
  
"Just once," Lalnable cooed, "I won't touch you unless you want me to. I won't try to escape. You can be in and out as quick as you want."  
  
Xephos faltered. He faltered.  
  
"Just once. Just one time, Xephos."  
  
"No."  
  
"What harm could it do, really? You respawn. You have a gun in that coat."  
  
"You -"  
  
"I won't do a thing to you. I promise."  
  
Xephos began to gravitate towards the keypad, steadily, and Lalnable shuddered.  
  
He was so hesitant, eyes darting across corridors only he frequented as if someone could stop him, but no one would. No one ever had.  
  
When he slid his keycard through and the metal door rose, Xephos was frozen at the sight of Lalnable without panel after panel of glass between them, and neither moved.  
  
"Hurry up, or you'll let in a draught."   
  
The moment Xephos slipped inside and the door shut behind him, he tensed as if he expected the worst, waiting for some excuse to draw the pistol barely concealed in his holster. Lalnable gave him none, of course. He made his way over to his white, utilitarian table, and sat with one fluid motion.  
  
"Sit down, Xephos." Lalnable said, calmly as he could, and he gestured to the spare plastic chair on the other side. Xephos entirely ignored the offer, anxiously rubbing one thumb over the other while his vision skated across the tiled walls.  
  
"I promised I wouldn't hurt you, Xephos. I'm not lying."  
  
Some of the tension in Xephos' body slipped away, and he settled himself down into the offered chair with an exhausted slump to his frame. He looked thin and withered, a scarecrow of the man who was once a paragon.  
  
"I though I was better than this."  
  
Lalnable's back straightened. "Better than what? Company? It's not as if you've let me loose."  
  
"What do you really want from me?"  
  
Lalnable shrugged. "Just to talk. If you were expecting something different, I'm sorry to disappoint you."  
  
Something in Xephos' posture shifted to be more relaxed. "So you don't want -"  
  
Lalnable cut him off before that thought went any further, "Are you offering?"  
  
Xephos snorted with laughter. "Of course I'm bloody not."  
  
"Good. Then stop worrying, for fuck's sake."  
  
"If I didn't worry about you, Lalnable, you would have left Yoglabs years ago."  
  
"I could have, but I didn't want to."   
  
Xephos sat up straighter, a layer of suspicion crossing his face, "Why wouldn't you want to?"  
  
"I never needed to," Lalnable said, "Everything I want is here."  
  
The expression of distrust faded, and Xephos idly began to tap at the table, a quiet tune Lalnable didn't recognise.  
  
He never thought to reach for his gun again.  
  


* * *

  
The first time Xephos came early to the clone labs, Lalnable was startled.   
  
Ten o'clock. An hour early. Lalnable thought for a moment he'd changed his schedule, but when the keycard slid in the lock for his cage any thoughts of that were gone.  
  
Xephos began to visit him once daily; twice if he needed help with blueprints for machinery.  
Three if his withdrawals were affecting him too badly and he needed to be distracted with idle chatter.  
  
It was obvious how lonely and deprived of interaction Xephos was, judging by the constant excuses he made to visit. All the little lies he told Testificate M.D. that were adding up to dirty looks of distrust the moment Xephos turned his back; he'd seen these arguments outside his cage, he'd heard them in the rooms outside his narrow corridor. They were loud enough for any passerby to hear, not that any would be brave enough to act on them.  
  
There were more conflicts every day. More arguments, and some in more secluded areas would end in gunshots and Xephos visiting him smelling sharply of iron with eyes deeper and darker than ever.  
  
The spaceman's fall from the little grace he still had was fascinating to watch; he didn't fight it like he'd fought losing his conscience in the first place. He hardly fought at all, for all his talk of being better than Lalnable and not needing anything from anyone but himself.  
  
Xephos was a liar verging on pathological. They flowed from his lips like honey that only ever weighed him down.  
Lalnable pretended to believe his stories of heroism and kindness, listened to his every twisted truth, and Xephos began to tell him more than just surface lies.  
  
He became Xephos' friend. His confidant. Lalnable couldn't care what truths and secrets he was told, so long as he was told them.  
  
So long as he knew the inner workings of Xephos' head, how all the gears stuck together and made him tick, he couldn't care how many hundreds Xephos killed a week.   
  
He couldn't care less, so long as he was trusted.

Every day, every hour, Xephos let more and more of himself out.

Soon his secrets and fears would run dry, and Lalnable would have all he needed.

* * *

 

  
Lalnable had truly intended nothing beyond what he needed to come of this. He'd wanted to become Xephos' most trusted friend, his most called upon adviser (and he had)- but not anything more. He only needed so much power for what he wanted; he didn't want more, that was redundant.  
  
He hadn't initiated a thing. He hadn't intended to.   
He hadn't thought the long, quiet looks Xephos gave him meant anything.  
  
They had, he was beginning to realise. They did. He'd reduced Xephos' cold independence to rubble without even trying, and now it was coming gently to dust.  
  
"Lalnable?"  
  
Lalnable looked up from the blueprints he and Xephos had been looking through to glance at the spaceman, barely keeping his eyes off the half-finished work.  
  
"What?" He said, marking in a line idly with a white pencil. The machinery was too complex for idle chatter, and he had no need to engage in any. He just wanted to do his work.  
  
It was suddenly very hard to concentrate on that.  
  
Xephos had given out a heavy sigh and rested his head on Lalnable's shoulder, an entirely too affectionate gesture for someone as sweet as a viper.  
  
Lalnable felt nausea bubbling up his throat at the contact, his thoughts growing more than a little fuzzy. His hand wavered slightly and the pencil skidded off course. "You're messing up the blueprint."  
  
"I don't care."  
  
Lalnable grit his teeth. "You need these plans for Testificate M.D. so your company stops going to shit."  
  
Xephos only buried his face into Lalnable's neck, an indignant noise coming from his throat. "I don't care."  
  
Lalnable put down his pencil neatly, trying to keep his voice even and patient. "You do, Xephos."  
  
"I just don't know why I ever thought I could keep up with Yoglabs. With anything." Xephos was so close to him that he could feel the spaceman's lukewarm breath on his skin, though he gave no indication he could feel it at all. He didn't want Xephos to see.  
  
"You're an idiot. You can tell yourself that you regret everything all you like, but that won't make it true."  
  
"I don't regret this."  
  
Lalnable felt the feather light brush of lips against his cheek and froze, something strange boiling up to the surface of his skin.  
  
Something violent he shoved down as far as he could manage.  
  
"Xephos," Lalnable said it as a warning, but Xephos took no notice.  
  
"Do you mind this?" Xephos' voice was quiet, but the question was entirely unavoidable.  
  
Lalnable's mind locked up, the gears grinding to a halt, because he had never thought of this.   
  
"No," Lalnable responded weakly, with as little hesitance as he could manage, and Xephos gave a smile.  
  
The kiss was little more than a short, sweet press and then it was gone, Xephos instead settling for nestling his head back into the crook of Lalnable's shoulder. Lalnable was thankful for that, as anything more would have had him struggling to shove down a familiar rage that already had his hands clawed.  
  
"Why? Lalnable said, his voice fluctuating with the effort of keeping it even.  
  
"Why what?"  
  
"Why me?"  
  
"I would prefer you didn't ask."  
  
"I killed quite a few too many scientists for that to be a good answer."  
  
"You won't get a better one."  
  
Xephos said no more as they finished the blueprint, only leaned further into Lalnable and gave up any hope he had of turning back.

"I love you."

Lalnable's breath caught in his throat and stuck there, an unpleasant and nauseous feeling he shoved down within himself, calming his thoughts that were arcing towards darker and bloodier places.

"I... Love you too, Xephos."

The lie was necessary, required in the long run, and despite Lalnable's hesitance Xephos believed every word of it.

He looked at Lalnable like he was someone he was not, someone without pale red eyes and a history of death, and Lalnable finally understood why Xephos trusted him so readily.

* * *

 

When he first began to ask for physical objects, Xephos was skeptical. That was expected, of course, but Xephos delivered despite his protests. He always did.  
  
At the start, it was more comfortable furniture and better quality supplies for blueprints and concepts that Xephos brought in through the computer system. He always said he wouldn't allow anything more, but that was another lie.  
  
By the end of several weeks Lalnable had a set of scalpels in a neat leather wrap, eight bottles of varying chemicals and surgical needles with ample thread; as well as enough science equipment for it to be almost noticeable under his bedframe. He had his excuses for each of them, of course, but even if he didn't Xephos would still give them to him if Lalnable so much as threatened no longer speaking to him. He never outright threatened it, that would be foolish, but Xephos would cave if he so much as mentioned the subject; or in more depraved circumstances, kissed him. The contact made him shake but it was necessary, too vital now to stop.  
  
His food rations didn't change, but that didn't matter a bit. An increase would only sharpen Testificate M.D.'s growing scrutiny of every change in his cell, which he visited far too frequently for Xephos' ever extending visits to continue as they did. They'd never been caught; Lalnable's hearing was far too sharp from the silence of his cell to miss even the quietest of footsteps; but it was a close thing. Testificate M.D. was clever, perhaps to a greater degree than Xephos assumed. He had to speed up.

"Xephos, do you mind helping me with this?"

"What is it?"

Xephos wandered over to his work table and their shoulders brushed from the closeness, Lalnable almost shifting in discomfort but not acting on the impulse.

"Chemicals. I've forgotten the right way to make this particular one."

Xephos locked up, shifting away, and Lalnable realised the poor excuse had been seen through. Shit.

"You don't forget things like that. It's not like you."

Lalnable took in a breath to explain, but Xephos cut him off, suspicion making his gaze sharp as a knife.

"What are you playing at?" He said, backing off as if making to leave, but Lalnable couldn't have that. He couldn't wait for the little trust he'd lost to come back.

He was almost out of time.

The moment Lalnable grabbed Xephos and clamped the rag dampened with chloroform over Xephos' mouth,  Xephos didn't so much as act surprised or gasp. He fought, wild and vicious, tearing at Lalnable's arms hard enough to make them bleed and his grip almost loosen, but Xephos slumped into his grip long before the pain would be too much.

Setting Xephos down gently, he prepared his scalpels with as much efficiency as his shaking hands could manage, every second passing one too many. The anticipation was distracting, consuming, but he had no time to gloat.

He dampened his scalpels with antiseptic and kneeled down, rolling Xephos slowly onto his front to have better access to the back of his neck.

The blade slid into the skin of his neck easily, catching on the small metal chip Lalnable knew would be there. The blood was minimal, he knew Xephos' anatomy, and as he set to work he knew this would be the easiest part of the process.

He still had to correct his own, but he'd been planning this too long to fail because of that mild inconvenience. They'd both drawn each other's blood at various points, the data was already there.

It would just take patience, and he had that in spades.

* * *

  
  
"Lalnable?" Xephos murmured as he woke, his mind undoubtedly still hazy from the chemicals he'd been knocked out with.   
  
The spaceman's brow furrowed at the small pool of blood his face was pressed against and he pushed himself to kneeling from where he lay on the floor, touching a finger to where blood weeped out of the back of his neck.  
  
"Lalnable, what have you-"  
  
Xephos' eyes caught Lalnable's, totally unaware for a split moment, and the distinct look of horror that dawned on his face was something Lalnable would not forget. Neither would he forget the speed at which Xephos stood, nor the anger with which he slammed into the glass between them.  
  
"What the fuck have you done?"  
  
The glass was much cleaner on the outside, pleasantly so, and Lalnable threw up Xephos' ID card and caught it, building up a rhythm.  
  
"Switcheroo, I suppose. You should get someone to actually clean that cell, you know. It's alright out here, but in there it's shit."  
  
Xephos looked to be on the end of his tether, all the softness left on the spaceman's face  fading like chalk in rain, "You- you took-"  
  
"Your face?" Lalnable said, giving his new willowy body a half-twirl, "The chip you installed in everyone so they could change shape was designed by me, after all. You didn't get rid of mine, and it just took a little tampering."

Xephos grit his teeth and exhaled, shaking his head, "They'll let me out when-"  
  
"When they see it's you in there? Doubt it. You don't have a mirror in there to look, but the hair's long enough that you should be able to figure it out."  
  
Xephos drew a lock of golden hair in front of his eyes and exhaled something that was half a swear and half a noise of pain, "You planned this. You planned this!"  
  
"Yeah. Though this was plan B, since I figured you would never let me just leave."  
  
"I knew it." There was something hysterical in Xephos' voice as he said it, "I knew you would do something like this, and I am an idiot for ever thinking you had depth."  
  
"That's rich, coming from you-"  
  
"Why did I listen to you?" Xephos added, his eyes squeezing shut. The statement was more something for himself than Lalnable, that was obvious; though it didn't matter.  
  
"Because you wanted me to win, all along."  
  
Lalnable reached up and touched the expanse of his new jaw, the silkiness of his waved black hair, and Xephos stared at him with shaking rage and eyes the colour of diluted blood.  
  
"I didn't want any of this!"  
  
"You wanted someone to take away your responsibilities. You wanted me. And here you go."  
  
"I wanted someone to help me with my work-"  
  
"You're nothing but a liar, Xephos. You kissed me and gave me everything I wanted because you were lonely and you didn't want to be."  
  
Xephos' breath caught in his throat and he pushed at the glass, the scrabbling of his bitten nails at the material all for naught.  
  
"I will kill you," Xephos seethed, his blonde brows drawn into a hard furrow, "I will break out of here and kill you!"   
  
Lalnable laughed, the voice he'd gained unfamiliar to his throat and yet it fit him like a glove. "Looking like me? You won't get ten feet out of that cell, and you will never fix that DNA chip. I won't give you shit."  
  
The spaceman gritted his teeth, the face Lalnable had once owned decidedly unfamiliar to the expression, and he banged against the glass with violent fury, "Lalnable!"   
  
"I'll visit you, if you like. Pass you those pills you love through the food slot. Maybe I'll even give you a walk once in a while."   
  
"You won't leave me in here."   
  
Lalnable laughed, though there was nothing like humour in it, "I'm not Lalna, Xephos. I will. "   
  
The moment Lalnable turned away Xephos slammed his full weight into the glass, the noise of futile struggle only growing louder. When he looked back to the spaceman, cursory, he was pressed against the glass with puffs of warm air making patterns of fog on the clear material.  
  
"You said you loved me," Xephos snarled like a wounded animal, and it gave Lalnable a reason to pause, "and you are a fucking liar."  
  
His hypocrisy was boundless.  
  
"Well, maybe you were loved, once. When you were someone important," Lalnable said, adjusting his scarlet coat, "But you're not, now. You're a crow, and all you can do is wait for everyone else to rot so you can strip them to the bone."  
  
Lalnable turned on his heel, not sparing a glance backwards, "And now you can't."  
  
When Lalnable turned away Xephos was silent, expectant, but the moment he realised Lalnable would not turn back something in him clearly snapped.  
  
Xephos broke down with protests, just on the edge of desperation, and the further away Lalnable got the more nonsensical the sentences that came out of his mouth became. When Lalnable was almost gone, the fever pitch of his voice changed sharply into screaming.  
  
"Lalnable!"  
  
He didn't look back.  
  
"Lalnable, please!"  
  
He would never look back.  
  
It only took moments for Xephos' screams to turn into one shaky sob, and then another, until whatever was left of Xephos' facade of strength had fallen away like so much broken glass.   
  
He had nothing left to be strong for.  
  
Stolen face in tow, Lalnable left the thin white corridor with a spring in his step and a gentle hum on a voice so much prettier than his ever was.


End file.
